Cut and Splice: From the Seven Days October 23, 2008

Cut and Splice: From the Seven Days brings together some of the world’s leading contemporary avant-garde musicians and performers for a two day festival based around Stockhausen’s infamous instructional score, Aus den Sieben Tagen (From The Seven Days). In sharp contrast to the Stockhausen tribute concerts seen throughout UK since his death, Cut & Splice: From the Seven Days sees Anton Lukoszevieze direct one of the most innovative interpretations of Stockhausen’s work. This year's Cut and Splice features over 20 performers, installations and a four day durational piece that culminates on the first day of the festival and is set in one of London’s most atmospheric spaces, Wilton’s Music Hall, the last surviving and oldest grand music hall in the world.

Aus den Sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days) from 1968 is one of those landmark works that is more often talked about but rarely performed. A small book or pamphlet of texts about music to be made, it uses the basic premise that we all have music inside of ourselves and through our own intuition and attentive listening a collective new-sounding will emerge. These are not improvisational rites, but a series of specific texts, each stipulating ways of making music. They are visionary, epic, difficult, challenging, gorgeous, unsettling, weird, cool and indeed a myriad of possible sonic experiences and this is what is so wonderful about these works, they lead us somewhere beyond the dull mainstream of so much contemporary cultural life.

Cut & Splice dismisses the often conservative and dry executions of Stockhausen’s work and brings together, quite simply, some of the best musicians in Europe, notable for their expertise in improvisation, indeterminate music and the creation of new sounds.

Performers will include the Lithuanian laptop quartet 2021, Reinhold Friedl, Apartment House, Frank Gratkowski, Cranc, Aleks Kolkowski, Maja Ratkje, Marc Weiser (Rechenzentrum) and Phil Minton. Joining them will be the pioneering American composer David Behrman who studied with Stockhausen and went on to become his assistant.

Cut & Splice

Cut & Splice has established an international reputation for inspired ideas and high quality production. A free-ranging festival of electronic music and sound art it is unique in its approach to programming. The project is co-curated and co-produced by Sonic Arts Network and BBC Radio 3 and presents live and broadcast activity, annually altering its focus and format to reveal pioneering sonic art at its best.

Official Website: http://www.cutandsplice.com